Last week, I traveled to New York for the 2012 Étoile Awards, where SCAD supporters convened at a warm, friendly dinner. The special occasion at a downtown gallery was hosted by SCAD to fete longtime SCAD supporter Mark Brashear, CEO of Hugo Boss, Americas.

Mark and Hugo Boss have been dear friends to SCAD since 2005, and the Hugo Boss-SCAD alliance has enriched the SCAD community beyond measure. Hugo Boss’s many contributions to SCAD include a $100,000 scholarship endowment, a collaborative project with SCAD advertising design, a craze-inducing annual sample sale, and, this year, title sponsorship of the annual SCAD Fashion Show in Savannah and SCAD Seen Gala in Atlanta. And this inspiring tradition of stewardship owes much to Mark’s leadership and vision.

The evening was a celebration of art and style in one of our most vibrant American cities, and style icons came out in droves to support the SCAD-Hugo Boss partnership. From Fern Mallis and Pamela Fiori (both in stunning green jackets) to the legendary André Leon Talley, fashion cogoscenti joined together to honor Mark and to get a preview of this season’s freshest fashion and accessory designs from SCAD students. The next day, I learned, Mark would be off to China, André to the Met Costume Institute Gala, and our other stylish guests off to their next artful adventure. For a few hours, though, we mingled together beneath iconic Warhol photographs…the setting, the student fashions, and the company producing an infinity of connections and intersections.

What I’ll remember most about Étoile 2012 is the respect Mark has cultivated among his coworkers, who absolutely revere his honesty and integrity. Mark himself has said of fashion that he “still doesn’t consider it work.” That’s what SCAD students strive toward, too – the palpable joy that accompanies a life of loving what you do.

During a recent trip to New York, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Freight + Volume gallery in Chelsea for a guided tour with superhero SCAD alumnus Michael Scoggins.

Michael walked me through his dynamic exhibition, “Us Against Them,” a stunningly smart show, which draws on the aesthetics of comic books and other childhood memories to push artistic discourse forward. To use the appropriate parlance, his work really packs a POW!

All SCAD students can learn from Michael’s imagination and integrity – extraordinary powers we strive to imbue in our student artists. It’s been rewarding for me to witness Michael’s practice evolve, even as his themes of politics, memory, and popular culture remain consistent.

While Michael’s work does inspire flight, no cape is necessary for SCAD Hong Kong students, who can view his exhibition “Superheroes,” presently on display at the Moot Gallery throughout the Spring.

At SCAD, the new year is already off to a groundbreaking start. Industry bellwether DesignIntelligence has ranked both SCAD’s undergraduate and graduate programs in interior design #1 in the 2012 edition of Best Architecture and Design Schools.  This double victory is historic for DesignIntelligence, too, marking the first time in the rankings’ history that both top honors were awarded to one university.

And as they say, good news tends to come in threes: in the same issue, SCAD interior design professor and internship coordinator Margo Jones was named one of the top 25 educators in the US. Margo is a born educator and a true SCAD ambassador, and I’m ecstatic to see her receive the recognition she deserves.

Last week, I gathered with interior design students and students to celebrate our trio of achievements at the newly expanded SCAD Museum of Art. We waved foam #1 fingers and snapped group photos, inspired by the words of Vice President for Academic Services Gokhan Ozaysin. “Here is your 20-second pitch,” he said. “When people ask what SCAD’s interior design program is like, you can tell them it’s the best in the country, times two.”

Near the end of the reception, senior Tara Headley from Barbados captured the moment perfectly. “I’ve received the best possible education at SCAD, and now I get to graduate knowing we’re number one. It’s awesome!”

Awesome, indeed. According to Jim Cramer, founding editor and publisher of DesignIntelligence, SCAD students are able to “tackle complex and difficult work, create and share knowledge, and invent new design solutions. These will be our future leaders.”

One thing is for sure – wherever SCAD leads, the creative professions are sure to follow. Congratulations to SCAD interior design chair Khoi Vo, SCAD faculty throughout the university, and the extraordinary students who work together each day to advance the SCAD tradition of excellence.

At SCAD, community service is in our DNA – part and parcel of our students’ education and a way of honoring Savannah, a city we’ve called home for more than three decades.

Several times each year, the SCAD Buzz Bus travels to local elementary schools to deliver art supplies and books. One of my favorite stops comes in December, when SCAD’s Secret Santa program delivers Christmas cheer to children at Savannah’s Union Mission. Now in its 17th season, this event has become a beloved holiday tradition for the entire SCAD community. This year, more students, faculty, and staff than ever before volunteered to gather gifts and participate in the Secret Santa Toy Drop.

The atmosphere positively bubbled with joy as we boarded the bus. We donned our most festive apparel, and even Art T. Bee managed to fit a Santa hat between his antennae.

After we arrived, SCAD volunteers formed an assembly line that Santa’s elves would envy, passing along soccer balls, skateboards, bicycles, princess castles, toy trucks, and boards games until gifts filled the mission’s lobby. Waiting there were Amire and his sister Bren’nijah (pictured above), Reynolda, Rashad, Armania, and Jalyn – all wide-eyed and beaming as the presents streamed in.

For the children – and for us – the true spirit of Christmas lived.

Walking among the ebullient crowd on Open Studio Night, one couldn’t help but recall the vibrant spirit of New York’s Chelsea neighborhood in the 1950s, when the post-war proliferation of galleries introduced a new generation of patrons to emerging, forward-thinking artists, creating entirely new works of art for a new world.

As a viewer and a collector, there’s something invigorating about encountering artists near the beginning of their careers. Open Studio Night highlights those formative moments when up-and-coming artists are immersed in experimentation and erudition. After chatting with several artists exhibiting that evening, I spent time talking with award-winning painter Joshua Lynn (pictured above), who earned a BFA from SCAD in 2003, and is now working toward an MFA in painting with an oeuvre of vivid geometric landscapes. If the past is precedent, he has a bright future ahead.

Some of the shining stars in today’s contemporary arts universe found their initial audiences at SCAD’s Open Studio Night. I recall in the mid-1990s wondering at the complexity of Monica Cook’s lush paintings. Since then, Monica has explored photography and animation, and recently showed mixed-media video art at the Guggenheim’s YouTube Play exhibition.

In 1998, Marcus Kenney’s thought-provoking collages sparked collectors’ interests at Open Studio Night, and now his paintings and sculptures are commissioned all over the world and have appeared in Art in America and CNN.com.

Then, there’s Michael Scoggins, who began using oversized notebook pages as his canvas while still an MFA candidate in 2006. His signature paintings are now part of the MOMA’s permanent collection.

These alumni began their professional artistic journeys here, at SCAD, and for many, that journey began at Open Studio Night. Those few hours of interaction and encouragement sparked within them the confidence to share their gifts with a wider world. I have seen this magical moment play out countless times in the lives of SCAD students, and I look forward to seeing it happen again and again.

In the 33 years since SCAD’s founding, I have seen Savannah transformed by the university and by our extraordinarily talented students. The city’s size affords a certain intimacy, and the entrepreneurial air here is quite unlike any other I’ve encountered. It’s no wonder, then, that when SCAD alumni start businesses, many choose to do so in Savannah – where their artistic aspirations sprang to full bloom.

One of my favorite shops in Savannah is Satchel, founded by SCAD alumna Elizabeth Seeger. Elizabeth knew what she wanted to do long before she arrived in Savannah – her mother and sister run an upholstery shop in New Orleans, and Elizabeth has fond childhood memories of collecting fabric scraps to transform into purses and wallets. At SCAD, she enrolled in the fashion design program and filled her schedule with fibers and accessory design electives, expanding her talents and working toward her dream of becoming a handbag designer.

Upon her SCAD graduation in 2005, Elizabeth moved to Los Angeles and began to work with a manufacturer to produce her designs. Within months, she found herself longing for the autonomy of running her own operation, and she missed her native South. Armed with invaluable experience and a determined spirit, she moved back to Savannah, and Satchel was born.

Initially, Elizabeth carried three handbag lines by outside vendors and did custom work on the side. Even then, she says, she aspired to one day make everything in the shop by hand. By Satchel’s second anniversary, she had achieved her goal: every bag sold by Satchel is designed, cut, and assembled on-site by Elizabeth and her three employees – all SCAD fibers and fashion alumni!

Even with a bustling shop on her hands, Elizabeth remains as connected to SCAD as ever. In Fall 2010, she initiated a partnership with SCAD printmaking professor Jill Kinnear, visiting Jill’s Introduction to Screen Printing course to work with students on original designs. To date, Satchel has produced beach bags and smaller gift items made from SCAD student-designed fabric, often integrating signature Satchel elements like leather handles and duck cloth.

Now in its fifth year, Satchel is the highlight of the Broughton Street west corridor. The shop’s classic bags, constructed primarily from leather and kilim, are as functional as they are beautiful, winning devotees near and far: the bag pictured on Elizabeth’s lap in the photo below is featured in the November 2011 issue of Lucky magazine. And the artist herself? She’s living her dream.

For years, I have looked at the ruins along Turner Street and imagined.  For years, I have dreamed of a place where perceived boundaries between art and design disciplines dissolve.  For years, we have perfected the design, and watched a historic structure transform.  Well, the SCAD Museum of Art has finally arrived.

I’d love to share a few initial reactions to the museum from within our SCAD family:

“Simply, the place is poetry, a deep and resonant ode to everything SCAD is. The models and blue prints, those hard-working renderings that we’ve seen over the past few years – nothing could convey the museum’s brilliance, the way it moves you through itself, the way the interior passageways breathe through and with you, the incredible size of the space (vast, wide, deep, high), the intimacy of it.  The student and faculty event on Wednesday was simply the biggest and most electric SCAD event I’ve ever seen.  I saw my students taking pictures, mouths agape, eyes wide, practically running through the space, propelled by an energy that seemed wholly new.”
- Dr. Harrison Key, SCAD Chair of Liberal Arts.

“More like SCAD Planet of Art.”
- from the  SCAD Museum of Art twitter feed.

“The SCAD Museum of Art is a study in tempo and textural shifts.  The patterns of light and shadow, all types of materials and ever moving vistas rivet. […] There’s so much to see.  I won’t describe all the clever and well-executed twists and turns; you will have to visit yourself. […] In my life, I’ve not been more moved by ART!”
- Katherine Sandoz, SCAD alumna and brilliant artist who wrote a post about the museum in her blog, which you can read here.

“I just stood in the Walter O. Evans Gallery and wept. I’ll have to come back to take it all in.”
- Bradley Bowers, SCAD graduate student in Furniture Design.

“If music is a metaphor of architecture, then the SCAD museum’s clean lines, grace and utility make it a symphony for the ages.”
- P.J. Johnson, Vice President for SCAD Atlanta

Keeping in touch with SCAD alumni is truly one of the best parts of my job as president. I think of our graduates as torchbearers, carrying the university’s legacy forth and bringing the magic of SCAD to new communities all over the world. That’s certainly what SCAD alumnus Britt Spencer did when he graduated with a BFA in illustration in 2005, then moved to Los Angeles to launch a career in children’s books.

Yet after a few years on the West Coast, Britt wanted more. He found himself at a crossroads – he could continue to pursue illustration, evolving his whimsical signature style, or he could develop an entirely new opus. A natural born adventurer, this Kentucky native journeyed back to SCAD, where he enrolled in the MFA painting program and set out for unknown territory. Nearly two years later, the humor and visual hyperbole that serve as Britt’s artistic calling card are still front and center, but he has added a few new tricks to his repertoire. The evidence: Britt’s recent thesis show featured hand-painted Russian nesting dolls, lending his folkloric style a brand new tangibility.

Of the difference between illustration and painting, Britt says the medium is the message. With illustration, he says, he begins with “an objective, something to communicate to an audience.” His painting, on the other hand, has become an object lesson in how not to communicate in a straightforward way – how to provide “red herrings” to disguise and redirect a viewer toward personal sources of meaning. Britt considers the two art forms so divergent that he refers to his paintings as “counterillustrations,” experimental and deliberate attempts to challenge an audience.

His artistic objectives notwithstanding, some things remain crystal clear: Britt is an extraordinarily gifted SCAD alumnus, and his work – by turns playful and somber, mythic and familiar – has only just begun its ascent.